Alex Azar

Alex Michael Azar II (; born June 17, 1967) is an American attorney, businessman, lobbyist, and former pharmaceutical executive who served as the 24th U.S. secretary of health and human services from 2018 to 2021. He was also chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force from its inception in January 29, 2020 to February 26, 2020, when he was replaced by Vice President Mike Pence.

In 2021, he was appointed a senior executive in residence at the Miami Herbert Business School at the University of Miami.

From 2012 to 2017, Azar was president of the U.S. division of Eli Lilly and Company, a major drug company, and a member of the board of directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a large pharmaceutical trade association.

Azar served as general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) from 2001 to 2005. On July 22, 2005, he was confirmed as the deputy secretary of health and human services; he served in that capacity until his January 2007 resignation.

Azar was born on June 17, 1967, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the son of Lynda (Zarisky) and Alex Michael Azar Sr. His father is a retired ophthalmologist who practiced ophthalmology in Salisbury, Maryland, for more than 30 years, and taught at Johns Hopkins Hospital. His grandfather emigrated from Lebanon in the early 20th century. The family originates from Amioun.

Azar attended Parkside High School in Salisbury, Maryland, where he graduated in 1985. He received a B.A. degree summa cum laude in government and economics from Dartmouth College in 1988. He belonged to the Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity. He earned a J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1991, where he served as a member of the executive committee of the Yale Law Journal.

After law school, from 1991 to 1992, Azar served as a law clerk for Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Azar left after six weeks, and was replaced in Kozinski's chambers by Brett Kavanaugh. Azar subsequently clerked for the remainder of the term for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. From 1992 to 1993, he served as a law clerk for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court.

From 1994 to 1996, he served as an associate independent counsel for Ken Starr in the United States Office of the Independent Counsel, where he worked on the first two years of the investigation into the Whitewater controversy. At the time of Azar's appointment, he was working as an associate in Starr's law firm.

Between 1996 and 2001, Azar worked for Wiley Rein, a Washington, D.C., law firm, where he achieved partner status.

On August 3, 2001, Azar was confirmed as general counsel of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. George W. Bush's first HHS secretary, Tommy Thompson, said Azar played an important role in responding to the 2001 anthrax attacks, ensuring there was a vaccine ready for smallpox, and dealing with outbreaks of SARS and influenza. On July 22, 2005, Azar was confirmed as the deputy secretary of Health and Human Services. He was twice confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate.

Working under Secretary Mike Leavitt, Deputy Azar supervised the operation of HHS, which would grow to an annual budget of over $1 trillion by 2017 when he was appointed secretary. Azar led the development and approval of HHS regulations, led U.S. government efforts to encourage worldwide pharmaceutical and medical device innovation, and was in charge of the HHS response to an initiative implemented by President George W. Bush to improve government performance. Azar resigned in January 2007.

On November 13, 2017, President Trump announced via Twitter that he would nominate Azar to be the next secretary of health and human services.

Many health care advocates raised concerns about the nomination, citing Azar's track record of raising drug prices and his opposition to Obamacare. Critics noted that Azar approved a tripling of the price of insulin while vice president of Managed Healthcare Services of Eli Lilly. Speaking in favor of his nomination were two former U.S. Senate majority leaders, Democrat Tom Daschle and Republican Bill Frist. Both those endorsers were affiliated with the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., think-tank which receives support from Eli Lilly.

In spite of objections, his nomination was relatively smooth. Azar was confirmed on January 24, 2018, with a 55–43 vote. with most Democrats opposed. Voting against him, Oregon senator Ron Wyden, ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, said that while Azar was at Eli Lilly, he "never, not one time, signed off on a decrease in the price of a drug." Senator Bernie Sanders said in a press release, "The nomination of Alex Azar, the former head of Eli Lilly's U.S. operations, shows that Trump was never serious about his promise to stop the pharmaceutical industry from 'getting away with murder'." "The last thing we need is to put a pharmaceutical executive in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services." During that tenure, Eli Lilly was fined for colluding to maintain high drug costs in Mexico.

Azar had additionally consulted with numerous other biopharmaceutical and health insurance corporations regarding government policy, product access, sales and marketing, pricing, reimbursement, and distribution. He was confirmed by the Senate on January 24, 2018, and sworn in by Vice President Pence on January 29, 2018.

From March to December 2018, Azar sat on the Federal Commission on School Safety.

Azar is an Antiochian Orthodox Christian and former Episcopalian. He is of Lebanese, Ukrainian, English, and Swiss descent.

Before his nomination, he lived in Indianapolis with his wife and two children. Azar served for two years on the board of HMS Holdings. He is currently on the board of the American Council on Germany, where he is chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.